    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: George W. Bush (2004, Book III)]
    [October 11, 2004]
    [Pages 2452-2459]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Remarks at a Luncheon for Senatorial Candidate Pete Coors in Denver, Colorado
    October 11, 2004

        The President. Thank you all for coming. Thank you all for being
    here. I appreciate you coming. Nice to be back in Colorado. I've spent
    some quality time here in the past. I'm here asking for the vote. I'm
    here also asking--I'm here to say as clearly as I can say it, the right
    man for the United States Senate from the State of Colorado is Pete
    Coors.
        And I want to thank you all for being here to help him. I like his
    judgment. I like his experience. I like his values. I like the fact that
    he is--will bring some commonsense to the Halls of the United States
    Senate. Oh, I might not get him to vote every way--every time the way I
    want him to--[laughter]--he's kind of an independent fellow. [Laughter]
    But I know I'll be able to count on him on the big issues.
        Laura sends her best. We spent the evening in
    Crawford, which is a long way away from Washington, DC. [Laughter] And
    she is--she's resting up today, and she's going to take to the road
    tomorrow. She is a fabulous First Lady. I love her dearly. You know,
    when I met her she was a public school librarian. And she said, ``Fine,
    I'll marry you''--after I asked her, of course--and she said, ``just so
    long as I never have to give any speeches.'' [Laughter] I said, ``You
    got a deal.'' [Laughter] Fortunately, she didn't hold me to that deal.
    She's speaking a lot, and the American people know her as a
    compassionate, warm, great First Lady.
        And I'm proud of my runningmate, proud of Dick Cheney. I like to tell people, when he was debating John
    Edwards it was clear he didn't have the waviest
    hair on the platform. [Laughter] But I didn't pick him for his hair.
    [Laughter] I picked him because he's a man of great judgment, excellent
    experience, and he's doing a really good job as our Vice President.
        And I appreciate Marilyn Coors for putting
    up with the race for the Senate. It's not easy when you're out there
    campaigning every day, but it's worthwhile, believe me. Public service,
    done the right way, is necessary for a good country. So thanks for doing
    what you're doing. It's good to see your mom, Pete. You and I share a
    strong-willed mother. [Laughter]
        Pete's going to take the place of a good man in Ben Nighthorse
    Campbell. I like him. He's a good
    fellow, a good, solid citizen. And he'll serve side by side with another
    good man in Wayne Allard.
        I appreciate your Governor. Bill Owens is
    doing a fine job. And Frances is one of our
    alltime favorites. Great to see you, Frances. Thank you for being here.
    I appreciate the fact that Congressman Joel Hefley is here, along with his wife, Lynn. Thanks for coming. That would be State Representative
    Lynn Hefley. Just don't challenge him in the primary sometime.
    [Laughter]
        Audience member. [Inaudible]
        The President.  Yes, that's right.
        Tom Tancredo and Jackie are with us. Thanks, Tom and Jackie. Thanks for
    coming. Beauprez is here somewhere. Oh, there
    he is, yes--and Claudia. Thank you all for
    coming. It's good to see you all. I appreciate you're here. Finally got
    out of town, didn't you? [Laughter]
        I want to thank all the State leaders who are here. I want to thank
    Bruce Benson, the campaign chairman for
    Pete. I wish Greg Walcher all the best in his
    race for the Third District of Colorado. Where is he? There he is, good.
        Listen, thank you all for coming. I'm going to give a speech a
    little later on this evening, so I don't want to get too repetitive. But
    it's really time to start ginning up these voter turnout organizations.
    It's

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    time to make sure that people understand we have an obligation in our
    society to vote. And I want to thank you all for helping to turn out
    that vote. It matters whether or not people show up to the polls. I
    mean, it--and I'm confident in this State. We'll carry Colorado again.
        I'm heading toward our final debate. I enjoy the debates. It's an
    interesting experience. [Laughter] It gives a chance to share ideas and
    talk about the big differences. And there are big differences.
    He's a fellow that I think had some
    credibility problems in the debates. He said with a straight face that
    he'd only had one position on Iraq. [Laughter] I could barely contain
    myself. [Laughter]
        Audience member. We noticed. [Laughter]
        The President. You might remember, in the spring of 2003 as I
    ordered troops into harm's way, he said, ``It
    was the right decision.'' Then when the political heat gets on, he says,
    ``It was the wrong war.'' He can run from his positions, but he cannot
    hide.
        He said with another straight face that
    when it comes to health care plan, and I quote, ``The Government has
    nothing to do with it.'' Unbelievable statement. The facts are that 8
    out of 10 people who get health care under Senator Kerry's plan would be
    placed on a Government program. He can run from his position, but he
    cannot hide.
        And then he said--and then they asked him
    to look in the camera, and he promised not to raise taxes for anyone who
    earns less than $200,000. The problem is, to keep that promise he'd have
    to break almost all his other ones. [Laughter] I'm looking forward to
    talking about taxes in this campaign. He's going to raise your taxes,
    pure and simple. Raising your taxes would be bad policy for our economy,
    bad policy as this economy is beginning to grow. He can run, but he
    cannot hide.
        That's why these debates are important. You know, after listening to
    all his complaints and his dour pessimism, it
    took all I could do not to make a face. [Laughter] Yes. No, I'm looking
    forward to it. We have a different philosophy, different way of looking
    at things. And one reason I'm hopeful that Pete wins--and I believe he
    will--is that we've got to put policies in place that keep the economy
    growing.
        You know, when you're out there gathering up the vote, remind people
    of what we've been through. This economy has been through a lot. Six
    months prior to our arrival, the stock market was in serious decline.
    And then we had a recession, and then we had corporate scandals, and
    then we got attacked. And that attack on America cost us one million
    jobs in the 3 months after September the 11th.
        We faced some serious obstacles, but because we acted, because we
    cut the taxes on the people, the recession was one of the shortest in
    American history. And our economy is growing, and it's getting stronger.
    And the fundamental question is, how do we keep it growing. It really is
    the issue, isn't it?
        I think the best way to keep the economy growing is to make sure
    America is the best place in the world to do business. That means less
    regulations. That means less lawsuits. That means an energy plan that
    encourages conservation, spends money on renewables, and uses
    technology, but it's an energy plan as well that recognizes we can
    explore for natural gas in environmentally friendly ways. It's a plan
    that says in order to keep jobs here, we've got to be less dependent on
    foreign sources of energy.
        I think trade is an issue in this campaign. I tell the American
    people we've opened up our markets to foreign products, which is good
    for the consumers. If you've got more products to choose from, you're
    likely to get that which you want at a better price and higher quality.
    That's how the marketplace works. So rather than shutting down our
    market and falling prey to economic isolationism, which I believe will

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    hurt jobs, I've got a different strategy, which is to go to places like
    China and say, ``You treat us the way we treat you. You open up your
    markets.'' And we're doing that all around the world.
        I believe Pete understands all this. I know he knows how to--that
    the role of Government is not to create wealth but an environment in
    which the entrepreneurial spirit flourishes. And the best way to do that
    is keep taxes low, regulations down, and do something about these trial
    lawyers that are running all over the business--[applause]. I don't
    think you can be pro-entrepreneur, pro-doctor, and pro-trial-lawyer at
    the same time. [Laughter] I think you have to choose. My opponent made his choice, and he put a trial lawyer on the ticket. I made my choice. I'm for legal reforms.
        A more hopeful society is one in which we educate our people. It
    starts with making sure the youngsters can read, write, and add and
    subtract. I look forward to defending the No Child Left Behind Act. At
    the heart of the No Child Left Behind Act is my fervent belief that
    every child can learn in America. Think about a system where the
    expectations are so low that all they do is shuffle kids through, grade
    after grade, year after year, without teaching the basics. That's not
    good enough for this country.
        See, when you hear me say we're going to challenge the soft bigotry
    of low expectations, what I'm saying is, is that the heart of my
    education reforms is the belief that everybody can learn, and we should
    expect everybody to learn. It's easy to quit on certain kids in American
    schools. You go into inner-city America, and it's easy to take a
    classroom full of the hard-to-educate and just move them through, or
    somebody's parent doesn't speak English as a first language. That's not
    the America I know. The America I know believes every child can learn.
        And that's why we now have got, in return for increased Federal
    spending, a system that says, ``Why don't you measure early to determine
    whether or not a child can read, and if not, we'll correct the problems
    before it's too late.'' And we're closing an achievement gap in America,
    and I need Pete Coors up there to make sure we don't go back to the old
    days of mediocrity.
        No, there's a lot more we can do. On health care--we'll have
    intermediate programs for at-risk kids in high schools and emphasize
    math and science, keep raising the bar, expand Pell grants for low- and
    middle-income families, to make sure more of our kids are able to start
    their careers with a college diploma. I'm a big believer in community
    colleges, to be able to use the community college system to be able to
    train workers for the jobs which actually exist. I mean, if we want to
    be competitive in the 21st century, we've got to be right about
    education. And this administration has got us headed in the right
    direction, and we're not going to go backwards.
        Health care is an issue. Health care is a big issue in the country.
    I like to tell people I went up there to solve problems and not just
    shuffle them on to other Presidents. And so I took on the Medicare
    issue. It was called ``Medi-scare'' for a long period of time. You
    talked about it, and you got whipped at the polls. But that's not my
    style. My style is to take on issues head on. And Medicare wasn't
    meeting the obligations to our seniors. It just wasn't. Medicine was
    being modernized, and Medicare was stuck.
        Let me give you an example--and I'll continue to cite these kind of
    examples in our forums. We would pay thousands of dollars for a heart
    surgery in Medicare but not a single dime for the prescription drugs
    that could prevent the heart surgery from being needed in the first
    place. That did not make any sense for our seniors. It certainly didn't
    make any sense for our taxpayers. So we worked with Congress, and we've
    now strengthened and modernized Medicare. Seniors will get prescription
    drug

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    coverage in the year 2006, and the health care for our seniors will
    vastly improve.
        But inherent in the new Medicare reform is my basic belief that our
    seniors as well as all people in America ought to have more choices when
    it comes to health care. One of the key reforms was to make sure that
    seniors were able to choose different plans to be able to meet their
    needs. And that's the fundamental difference between me and my
    opponent. I told you, he said the other day
    with a straight face the Government doesn't have anything to do with his
    health care. That's wrong. He's going to expand Medicaid. That's a
    Government program. My fundamental--my health care plan addresses the
    fundamentals, which is availability and affordability.
        Now, look, we need to take care of the poor in America, and that's
    why I'm for expansion of community health centers so the poor and the
    indigent can get good preventative care, good primary care in places
    other than emergency rooms in the hospitals. And I believe we ought to
    make sure our children--low-income children's health care programs are
    fully subscribed to. These are commonsense ways to take care of people
    who cannot help themselves.
        But when it comes to overall health care, it's a vital mistake to
    increase the role of the Federal Government. That's why I'm for
    association health plans, to allow small businesses to pool together so
    they can buy insurance at the same discounts big businesses can. I'm for
    expanding health savings accounts, which enable workers and small
    businesses to pay low premium--buy low-premium catastrophic plans and,
    at the same time, set aside money on a tax-free basis. Many of the young
    in America are uninsured because they can't find insurance that fits
    their needs. A health savings account will allow a young worker to be
    able to design his or her own health care program that he or she can
    save money tax-free and take from job to job.
        And finally, in order to make sure that health care works, we've got
    to do something about the lawsuits. I'm telling you, these lawsuits are
    driving good docs out of business and driving up the cost of health
    care. It's a big issue. It is a big issue, and it's one that resonates.
    And my opponent got up there and said he's for
    it. My only question is, why didn't you vote for it when it was on the
    floor of the United States Senate? He's trying to run, but we're not
    going to let him hide. [Laughter]
        I think values are an important part of this campaign--values for
    the Presidency as well as values for the Senate race. You know, in
    changing times--and they do change--it's important to have people
    understand certain things don't change, like the values we try to live
    by, courage and compassion, reverence and integrity. I believe we ought
    to stand for a culture of life in which every person matters and every
    being counts. We need to stand up for institutions like marriage and
    family, which are the foundations of our society. And I need Pete in the
    United States Senate to make sure that my judges are confirmed, judges
    who will make decisions not based upon personal opinion but the strict
    interpretation of the law.
        And the other issue, of course, is how to make the world a safer
    place, what to do to protect this country. Our most solemn duty is to
    protect the American people. I'll tell people tonight like I've been
    telling them all over the country, if we show uncertainty or weakness in
    this decade, this world will drift toward tragedy. This isn't going to
    happen on my watch. We will----
        Audience member. We're with you, Mr. President!
        The President. Thank you. We will continue to work to protect this
    homeland. You know, we've got to be right 100 percent of the time. The
    enemy has got to be right once, and that's a challenge we face. So Pete
    will be working on smart ways to make sure the intelligence system works
    better and make sure the information flows

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    between our different law enforcement agencies is not disrupted. That's
    why I believe we need to renew the PATRIOT Act. We'll make sure the
    ports and borders are protected as well as they can be. But the best way
    to defeat the terrorists is to stay on the offense. We got to beat them
    overseas so we don't have to face them here at home.
        We have a fundamental difference in this campaign. My
    opponent says it's all about law enforcement
    and intelligence. This war on terror requires all of the might of the
    United States of America in order to protect the American people. Let me
    tell you some of the things I've learned since I've been your President.
    One, you cannot negotiate with these people, these ideologues of hate.
    You cannot hope for the best, you know, ``Well, maybe if we only say
    some nice things, they'll change their mind.'' That's not how they
    think. The only way to deal with them is to find them and bring them to
    justice before they hurt us again.
        And we're making progress. We're making progress because three-
    quarters of Al Qaida's--and their associates have been brought to
    justice. And as we speak, we're on the hunt, and we'll keep the pressure
    on them, unrelenting pressure to protect you.
        Secondly, this is a new kind of war. It's different from what we're
    used to. And when we find somebody who harbors these people, they must
    be held to account as well. Now, let me tell you something about the
    Presidency. When you say something, you better mean what you say. And
    when I told the Taliban that they need to get rid of Al Qaida, I meant
    what I said. And when they didn't, we sent troops in and liberated the
    people of Afghanistan. In liberating the people of Afghanistan, we made
    ourselves safer. Remember, Al Qaida was training in Afghanistan. It was
    like they were the parasite, and the Taliban was a weak host. And the
    strategy of these ideologues of hate is to eventually take over the
    host. They had just about done it. And so we're safer.
        We've also done something different as well--we've accomplished
    something else as well, and that is, in protecting our own security,
    we've helped establish a democracy. One of the most remarkable things
    happened this past weekend. Think about what life was like for people
    under the Taliban. Young girls couldn't go to school. Their mothers were
    whipped in the public square if they didn't toe the line on this
    barbaric vision of mankind. Some were executed in sports stadiums. And
    yesterday--or 2 days ago, people showed up to vote for the President of
    that country. And the first voter--the first voter was a 19-year-old
    girl. Isn't that fantastic?
        It's in our interests that freedom spread. Freedom is powerful. If
    just given a chance, freedom is a powerful notion. Everybody wants to be
    free, I think. I believe freedom is God's gift to every man and woman in
    this world. At the heart of much of what I say to the American people is
    that belief.
        And then we went into Iraq. The biggest threat facing America is
    that a terrorist network like Al Qaida could end up with weapons of mass
    destruction. If you think the carnage was bad with airplanes, imagine
    what it would be with a weapon of mass destruction. And I saw a threat.
    Well, the second lesson of September the 11th is that when we see a
    threat, we must deal with it before it comes to hurt us. Remember the
    old days of prior to September the 11th. If we saw a threat, we felt
    safe, because oceans seemed to protect us. That's all changed. It's
    essential your President understand that, and we just can't hope threats
    go away. We must deal with them.
        And so I saw a threat in Saddam.
    Remember, I went to the Congress, and the Congress saw the same threat.
    My opponent saw the same intelligence I saw
    and voted to authorize the use of force, something he's not too clear
    about these days. [Laughter]

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        And I went to the United Nations because committing our troops into
    harm's way is the last option for the President. I fully understand the
    consequences of war. You know, I wish I never had to commit troops. I
    was hoping diplomacy would work. But as it had for over a decade,
    diplomacy failed. The United Nations passed resolution after resolution
    after resolution, and Saddam just ignored
    them. I think it is reflective of my opponent's point of view when he says, ``Well, what we should have
    done was passed another resolution''--[laughter]--precisely what Saddam
    was hoping would happen. He was hoping the world would turn away.
        Listen, we didn't find any weapons when we got in there. We all
    thought there would be weapons. But let me tell you what we did find. We
    found that he had the capability and the
    intent and the expertise to reconstitute his weapons programs and, as
    the Duelfer report pointed out, that he
    was gaming the Oil for Food Programme, trying to influence governments
    to get rid of the sanctions which were already weakening, for one
    reason: to reconstitute his weapons. Knowing what I know today, I would
    have made the same decision, and the world is better off without Saddam.
        And we're making progress. We're headed toward elections in January.
    Think about how far that society has come from the days of a brutal
    tyrant. I told the story about the seven men
    that came to see me in the Oval Office. I think I said it at the
    convention. These guys walk in, and they've all had their right hands
    cut off by Saddam Hussein and an X carved in their forehead. I'll tell
    you why. The currency had gone down. The Iraqi dinar had gone down, and
    he needed a scapegoat in order to, I guess, justify to other people who
    were watching that he wasn't at fault. So he plucked these small-
    business merchants out of society.
        I asked one of them, I said, ``Why you?'' He said, well, he was a
    jeweler, and he happened to sell gold--or sell dinars to buy euros to
    buy gold in order to use to make jewelry. It was just a bad day for him
    to have made that transition--transaction. So Saddam pulls him out, cuts
    off his hand, carves an X into his forehead, and charges him for the
    operation. This is Saddam Hussein. This is
    the kind of person that used to run that country.
        Fortunately for them, citizens from around the world, including
    people in Houston, Texas, saw their plight, flew them to Houston, and
    they have a new hand put on, free. What a contrast between a society as
    brutal as that run by Saddam and a
    compassionate society like the United States of America.
        The terrorists are fighting us in Iraq because they cannot stand the
    thought of a free society in their midst. The fight in Iraq is integral
    to the war on terror. It's an essential battle. And by being resolved
    and firm, we will succeed in Iraq. And when we do, the world will be
    better off.
        A couple other points I want to make, and then we'll liberate you.
    [Laughter] First, anytime we put our troops into harm's way, they need
    to have the full support of the Government. And we got good support in
    September of 2003 for the $87 billion supplemental request. And I'm
    telling you, this money was vital. It provided important resources for
    troops in harm's way, not only in Iraq, in Afghanistan. Twelve Members
    of the Senate voted against it. Four Members of the Senate voted to
    authorize the use of force and not to fund the troops, two of whom were
    my opponent and his runningmate. I think that is illustrative. I think it's a statement
    about this race for the Presidency.
        And so was his answer to the first time he
    got asked the question, ``I actually did vote for the $87 billion,
    before I voted against it.'' It's an astounding answer. [Laughter] But
    it's been one of seven explanations--[laughter]--as to why. One of

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    them was, ``The whole thing is a complicated matter.'' There's nothing
    complicated about supporting our troops in harm's way. I will continue,
    as your Commander in Chief, to make sure our troops have the best.
        I tell people about my relationship with Prime Minister
    Koizumi. I just did so in Hobbs, New
    Mexico, and I'm going to do so tonight here in Denver. I'm going to do
    so tomorrow in Colorado Springs, for a reason--because I want people to
    understand what liberty can do to societies. I tell people I believe in
    the transformational power of liberty. The best way to make the case is
    to explain that one of my friends, with whom I deal, is the Prime
    Minister of Japan, Koizumi. I saw him in New York, and I said, ``Listen,
    I'm telling everybody in the country about you. Do you mind if I
    continue doing it?'' He said, ``Fine.'' Of course, what I didn't ask
    him, if I could tell you that his favorite singer was Elvis. [Laughter]
    The guy's a good guy. I like him a lot.
        But it wasn't all that long ago that we were fighting the Japanese.
    We were at war. They were the sworn enemy of America. My dad fought them. I'm sure your dads and granddads did
    as well. After we won, Harry S. Truman believed in the transformational
    power of liberty, that liberty can convert an enemy into an ally. He
    believed that. There was a lot of skeptics who said that couldn't
    happen. You can understand why. We had just fought them. Many lives had
    been changed as a result of the carnage of World War II. I'm sure a lot
    of moms and dads say, ``Why even think about it. Why worry about it?''
        But Harry Truman had that belief, as did a lot of other Americans.
    And so after the war was over, we worked with Japan to help them build a
    democracy. And today, I sit down at the table with Prime Minister
    Koizumi, talking about the big issues
    confronting the world, talking about how to keep the peace we all want.
    Think about that. Sixty years or so after we had fought these people, I
    now sit down with the leader of their country talking about peace,
    talking about North Korea, talking about helping Iraq, talking about
    fighting terror, all aimed at keeping the peace.
        Someday, an American President and a duly elected leader of Iraq
    will be sitting down at the table talking about the peace in the greater
    Middle East, talking about how to help women in the greater Middle East
    realize a free society, talking about how others have a chance to
    realize the great benefits of democracy.
        That's what's happened. These are historic times. The world is
    changing for the better. I told the people in my convention speech,
    we've done the hard work and climbed the mountain; we see the valley
    below. It's a valley of peace, based upon freedom and liberty. And make
    no mistake about it--make no mistake about it--if this country has the
    right leadership and the right determination and the will to succeed, we
    will. And future generations of Americans will be better off for it.
        Thanks for coming. God bless you all.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:24 p.m. at the Wings Over the Rockies
    Air and Space Museum. In his remarks, he referred to Marilyn Coors, wife
    of senatorial candidate Pete Coors; Gov. Bill Owens of Colorado and his
    wife, Frances; Jackie Tancredo, wife of Representative Tom Tancredo;
    Claudia Beauprez, wife of Representative Bob Beauprez; Charles Duelfer,
    Special Advisor to the Director of Central Intelligence; and Prime
    Minister Junichiro Koizumi of Japan. He also referred to the
    ``Comprehensive Report of the Special Advisor to the DCI on Iraq's
    WMD,'' issued September 30.

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